Happy Birthday Yamaguchi
by MooseTalk
Summary: Tsukishima finds that maybe he isn't too bad at gift giving after all.


**_AN: Sorry if it's not totally accurate to the timeline in the show. Enjoy._**

Tsukishima wasn't very good at giving gifts.

I'm sure people who knew him would make this assumption subconsciously, and they'd be right. It didn't come easily to him at all, in fact, choosing gifts for someone was harder than trying to tolerate Hinata and Kageyama's loud antics. Never mind getting something and wanting the person to actually _like_ it. He couldn't remember the last time he got a gift for someone and they seemed excited to receive it.

But as Tsukishima sat there at his desk, lazily strumming his fingers to the beat of the song flowing through his headphones, he was truly stumped. He glanced up to the wall where his calendar hung. Circled, was the date November 10th. There wasn't a note written under it, because he already knew what it was.

Yamaguchi's birthday. He'd be turning 16 now. Catching him up to Tsukishima's own age. Normally, seeing Yamaguchi's birthday coming up so fast (three days away, in fact) he wouldn't have given it too much thought. The two of them would go somewhere to hang out, maybe Yamaguchi's favorite cafe. Tsukishima would pay for both of their food, and that was his way of giving gifts to his friend. At any rate, Yamaguchi had always seemed grateful for it, and that's what mattered anyways, right?

However, this year, Yamaguchi told him at the beginning of the month that him and his family were going to spend the day in Tokyo together for his birthday. Tsukishima made sure to make a mental note to not plan on going anywhere together like they normally did on the 10th. But that still raised the problem.

 _What on earth do I get him now?_

Taking him places and buying him food and such had always been the easy way out, he knew that. After all, how easy is it to buy someone something when they're right there beside you? There's no worrying whether they'll even like it or not if there's no surprise or wrapping paper involved.

Now that he's unable to take him somewhere for his birthday, what gift could he possibly give him now? If he asked, (which he nearly did) Yamaguchi would just tell him it was fine, that he didn't need anything this year. And maybe that were true, maybe he didn't need anything. But it didn't change the fact that something at the back of Tsukishima's mind wouldn't stop nagging at him until he did buy something.

Suddenly, breaking his train of thought, was the sound of his door being opened just a crack. It was his mom, probably coming to say goodnight before she went to bed.

His song had ended anyways.

He looked up after slipping off his headphones, meeting his mother's eyes.

"Yes?"

"Done with your studies yet?" She asked, walking over near his desk.

He nodded, but his eyes settled back on the calendar. The 10th was so close. Damn it, maybe he really should just ask Yamaguchi what he wants in order to get it over with.

Tsukishima's mother followed his eyes, and her own settled on his calendar. She perked up some.

"Your friend Tadashi's birthday is right around the corner."

"Yes…"

"Have you thought of where you might go this time?"

"We're not going anywhere this year." He couldn't stop the voice crack at the end of the sentence, making him cringe. He hoped she didn't hear it.

"Did something happen between you two?" Her voice was filled with sadness and she rested a hand on his shoulder.

 _Yup, she heard it._

"No, nothing happened. He's spending the day with family in Tokyo."

"Ah… I see." She took her hand away. "So what did you get him then?"

"Nothing."

 _That didn't sound right._

"Yet." He finished.

His mother yawned, making her way towards the door.

"Tadashi is a sweet boy. I'm sure he'll love anything you get him as long as it's from you or even your team." She passed through the doorway. "You'll think of something Kei… Goodnight."

"Goodnight…" He mumbled.

 _Something from the team? Maybe I should've thought of that sooner. With how hard he's been practicing his serves lately, I think he'd appreciate something from everyone._

And so, the very next day, he got to work. The idea of what to get him came to his head right before he fell asleep that night, and in the morning, he knew it was the best plan he could have made in this short a time span. After practice that day, He told Yamaguchi he could would walk home by himself tonight, seeing as he had something to take care of. Thankfully, it worked out so Yamaguchi was the first to leave. Doing his best not to leave the club room without saying anything, Tsukishima finally asked everyone to stay behind and help him out.

It took a painfully long time to sort things out, but they all finally agreed to help. Seeing as how it was for Yamaguchi, not Tsukishima himself, eventually Kageyama joined in too. Though it was true he didn't do much. The gift was finished that night, but it wasn't rushed, and Tsukishima was pleased with the results. The had to finish the gift inside of the school, so thankfully Takeda-sensei was there to help out. He bargained for more time for them, and they were all grateful.

He probably hadn't worked this hard on a gift through his entire life, and all he could hope for was that Yamaguchi liked it. Even if it were a tiny would be fine too.

The day before his birthday rolled around, and he and Yamaguchi agreed to get together during the afternoon, that way Tsukishima could present the gift before he started to second guess the whole thing.

Tsukishima carried the gift in his backpack, it wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't exactly light. He was thankful to meet up at Yamaguchi's house and take off the backpack once he got inside.

As usual, they headed up to Yamaguchi's room, he was going on about some new video game he just got, but Tsukishima wasn't paying attention. The feeling dread filled him as he realized he still needed to present the gift.

 _What if he doesn't like it?_

Tsukishima plopped down on Yamaguchi's bed and sighed.

"Everything okay, Tsukki?"

He looked up. "Huh? Uh.. Yeah. It's just…"

Yamaguchi sat down next to him as he tried to explain himself. Eventually he just gave up, grabbed his backpack and yanked the gifts out from inside. There was medium sized, squareish package with blue wrapping paper, and a yellow envelope. He turned to his side and plopped the gifts down on Yamaguchi's lap. Which shocked him, to say the least. He took the packages in his hands with extreme care, as if the slightest touch would cause damage.

"What's this, Tsukki?" He asked in surprise.

"It's just a birthday gift…" Tsukishima's face got hot. "It's nothing big… So don't get your hopes up… So..."

 _Why are words so hard?!_

"Just… Open already."

Yamaguchi couldn't stop himself from giggling. It was hilarious to see his normally cool and laid back friend stumble through his words like he were giving a speech to hundreds of people.

"Shut up… Just open it…" Tsukishima grumbled.

"Okay, Tsukki." Yamaguchi grinned. "Which one first?"

"Um… The blue package I guess."

He began from the corner of the gift, slowly ripping the paper. What was revealed, was a medium sized framed picture of the Karasuno team. It was a picture taken during training camp, by Yachi. She brought her camera along on that trip, and she took many, many pictures. Takeda had saved copies of them in a folder at his desk. The team got together and went through the pictures the night before. They finally settled on this picture of the whole team, it was practically the only one where they were all looking at the camera, none of them were goofing off, and they were genuinely happy. Happy to be training so hard in Tokyo, happy to be together at all. It was after Yamaguchi had yelled at Tsukishima about pride, after Hinata and Kageyama had made up. Karasuno was finally settling back into its rhythm, prepared to become stronger than before.

Yamaguchi sat in awe, he didn't say anything, nor did he move, Tsukishima held his breath, he needed something to break the silence. Finally, he remembered the second part of the gift. He reached across his friend to grab the envelope.

"Here." He said, putting in into his hands so he had no choice but to hold it. "Come on, open it."

Yamaguchi did as he was told, and he opened the envelope. He pulled out multiple letters, too many to hold in a single hand. He glanced at Tsukishima in wonderment for a second.

"They're from the team." He shrugged. "It was a pain getting them to do this, I haven't really read them… So I don't know if they're stupid or not. I thought I should warn you in advance."

Yamaguchi opened one of them, and then the next, and the ones after that. They were short notes, wishing him happy birthday, giving him encouragement for his serves, or playing in general.

 _Happy Birthday, Yamaguchi! Keep up all your hard work!_

 _-Daichi_

He flipped through the next,

 _Happy birthday, my kind kouhai! Here's to us kicking Seijoh's ass soon!_

 _-Tanaka (senpai)_

 _Happy Birthday! I'm not too great at writing notes… But you deserve a wonderful birthday,_

 _See you at practice!_

 _-Asahi_

 _Yamaguchi! Happy birthday! I can't wait to see your awesome pinch serves in our next matches!_

 _\- Your friend, Hinata._

 _Nice serve._

 _Happy birthday._

 _-Tsukishima_

Yamaguchi started laughing, and sniffling all at the same time, it came over him like a wave. He put his face in his hands and kept laughing, and crying. He rubbed his eyes with his sleeves and buried his face.

 _Crap… Was this that bad of an idea? I didn't mean to make him cry…_ Tsukishima worried, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward. Should he apologize?

With no warning, Yamaguchi wrapped his arms around Tsukishima in a tight hug, but it was over too quick for him to respond in anyway. Yamaguchi knew hugs weren't his friend's favorite thing, but he felt the need to for this.

Yamaguchi sat back and rubbed his eyes again, still laughing some.

"Thank you, Tsukki…"

Tsukishima shrugged. "It was nothing. Takeda-sensei helped a lot on the frame too."

Yamaguchi nodded, and gathered all of the notes together.

"I'm glad we didn't go anywhere for my birthday this year."

"You are?"

"Yeah. I would never have gotten this."

Maybe Tsukishima wasn't too bad at gift giving after all.


End file.
